Demonstrating a lack of brand/cause effects on point of sale donations

Point of sale cause-related marketing has raised over $2 billion for charities over the past 30 years, yet the subject remains largely unexplored in academic literature. The subject of brand/cause fit, however, is prolific throughout extant research, with many studies showing that high congruence between a company and a charity is necessary to achieve philanthropic success. This paper challenges current marketing thinking both conceptually and empirically. Employing tests of no-effect hypotheses following the guidelines set out by Cortina and Folger (1998), it is established that, in the point of sale cause-related marketing context, the traditional effects of brand/cause fits do not apply. Across three studies involving experimental designs and over 500 respondents, the results of one-way ANOVA analyses consistently demonstrate that a low brand/cause fit can be just as effective as a high/brand cause fit. These findings contribute to a profound understanding of social efforts such as cause-related marketing may not be as simple or easily understood as was once thought.